During a presentation at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference, cloud graphics pioneer, OTOY previewed the forthcoming version of its acclaimed OctaneRender software, showcasing a range of features that will let artists, animators and designers create the most realistic renders possible using a more efficient workflow on their workstations or in the cloud.

OTOY also announced application support for Adobe After Effects, demonstrating the ability to import a complete 3D scene into the After Effects timeline which can then be edited in real-time. OctaneRender 2.0 builds on the incredible performance of previous versions, harnessing NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) to dramatically accelerate rendering time. All of OTOY’s technologies including OctaneRender are on display at the GPU Technology Conference at the OTOY booth, #512 in the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose.

“As a long-time effects artist, it’s my job to recreate reality through creative computer-generated rendering for some of the most well-known television programs and feature films. OctaneRender is one tool that continues to make my life much easier. It has been an integral part of the work I’ve created for projects such as Boardwalk Empire, Star Trek Into Darkness, and the upcoming Godzilla film, allowing me to spend more time refining my work and less time waiting for renders. Incredible quality and phenomenal speed define OctaneRender. I am excited to see how the program improves from here,” said Steve Messing, Visual Effects Art Director.

“As an effects artist and supervisor who’s worked on some of the biggest live action and animated film franchises, I’ve had the opportunity to use a wide variety of tools and technologies to bring creative visions to life. OctaneRender is without a doubt one of the most advanced render engines I’ve ever seen. It really feels we are finally nearing the point in time where the technology keeps up with the artist instead of being a creative bottleneck. The result is more iteration time, better images, and happier artists. We put OctaneRender through its paces for Space Station 76 to great effect, and I look forward to getting my hands on the bells and whistles included in the new version to see how the best got better,” said Billy Brooks, Visual Effects Supervisor, Space Station 76, which premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival.

“OctaneRender is the centerpiece of a suite of OTOY rendering technologies that epitomizes exacting realism and unparalleled performance,” said Jules Urbach, Founder and CEO, OTOY.

“OctaneRender 2.0 will build on those pillars, harnessing NVIDIA GPUs both client-side and in the cloud to deliver even more accurate renderings in real-time through new features and workflow improvements that are a direct response to the artists, designers, and engineers who use the product every day.”

“OctaneRender, coupled with the power of NVIDIA GPUs and the CUDA programming model, has proven to deliver exceptional results,” said Andrew Cresci, General Manager, Manufacturing Industries, NVIDIA. “Using these tools, artists with demanding visualization needs can keep up with their increasingly complex and compute-heavy workloads.”

OctaneRender 2.0 will include new features such as:

Displacement mapping – Used to give objects depth and detail, displacement mapping allows the height of points on a surface to be adjusted based on an image value.

Object motion blur – The blurring effect that simulates motion of inanimate objects in a rendered scene will be supported and can be applied independently of the camera movement.

Hair and fur – An optimized hair render primitive is now available to allow rendering of hair or fur while reducing memory usage by 20 times compared to previous processes. OctaneRender 2.0 will also simulate the distribution and fluidity of movement of those primitives.

OpenSubDivsurfaces – Pixar’s powerful library for fast refinement of subdivision surfaces using the capabilities of graphics processors will be integrated within OctaneRender. This useful technique in animation will conveniently be integrated into OctaneRender’s user interface, allowing subdivision surface refinement specifically based on Pixar’s OpenSubDiv implementation.

Rounded edges – Artists will have the ability to easily and efficiently round the sharp edges of geometric objects without modifying and reloading the geometry. The process is done during rendering by special shader algorithms that recalculate normals near the sharp edges and corners to make them appear smooth allowing for the tuning of edge sharpness in real-time throughout rendering.

Random color texture for instances – Useful for easily modifying the colors of instances which otherwise have the same material.

Improved sky rendering – Using HDRI + Sun, OctaneRender 2.0 will enable the use of textures as sky backgrounds, and ensure that objects in the scene accurately reflect the loaded sky texture.

Node folder structure – OctaneRender 2.0 will facilitate a cleaner, more organized workspace with a new folder structure that allows users to create packages of nodes, node graphs, and node trees, and organize them in folders along with thumbnails for easy identification.

Region rendering – To save time on test renders, this feature will allow users to specify a region in the scene and partially preview rendered results in real-time.

Network rendering – The rendering process can be made faster than ever by leveraging remote GPUs on render slaves connected via the network.

Support for new display types – OctaneRender 2.0 will support new presets that can be used to render scenes directly for new display types including VR devices such as the Oculus Rift.

Compatibility with Brigade – OctaneRender 2.0 will further expand its integration with Brigade, OTOY’s cloud rendering technology for photorealistic next-generation games. Within Brigade, users will be able to open scenes created in OctaneRender and walk through those scenes in real-time over the cloud.

The Adobe After Effects plugin is expected to be released in the second half of 2014. To follow along with OctaneRender 2.0’s progress, continue watching the OTOY blog at http://render.otoy.com/newsblog/.